Recipe for :

This recipe has been reproduced with the kind permission of Samara Cuisine.

Based in Ham, South West London Samara Cuisine not only caters for all kinds of occasions, such as dinner parties, birthday parties, weddings, hen nights, Christmas parties, office parties, corporate functions and conferences but also teaches hands on cookery classes in Lebanese cuisine.

The classes are held in our Mediterranean garden, and in Winter the classes take place in our dining room over looking the Mediterranean garden, in front of a cosy fire.

Each class features three different Lebanese recipes, tips on how to preserve food, best places to shop, how to choose the ingredients, costs and the amount you need to prepare for different occasions. You can also join us, a day before on a shopping trip to the local market or the Arabic shops to introduce you to many new ingredients, and how to use them.

Each cooking session accommodates four people. Everyone prepares and helps to put together the meal and at the end of each session we all sit down with a bottle of Lebanese wine to sample the food.

All participants will take home a plate of Lebanese Baklava, a bag of Lebanese bread, all the recipes they tried and general cooking tips.

. . . like to know more about how to book a cooking class then visit www.samaracuisine.co.uk

Ingredients

1 Cup of unsalted butter
24 sheets of filo pastry
2 Cups of walnut
1/2 Cup of pistachio nuts
3 tbsp of granulated sugar
1 tbsp rose water
Ground pistachio for decoration

Syrup:
1 Cup of sugar
1 Cup of water
2 tbsp of lemon juice
1 tbsp of rose water

Method

• Prepare the syrup first. Put all the ingredients in a small pan, stir until the sugar is dissolved. Put on at a high temperature and stir from time to time until the syrup is no longer watery. This will take around 5 minutes, leave aside to cool down.

• To prepare the sheets, melt the butter in the microwave and brush the bottom of the baking pan with butter. Lay the first sheet of filo pastry flat, and brush with butter.

• Do the same with 12 sheets, leave the baking tray aside.

• Meanwhile prepare the nuts. Wash the pistachio and walnut and put in a blender, add sugar, rose water and blend until fine.

• Spread the nuts evenly on top of the filo pastry and cover with the rest of the filo pastry sheets, brushing each one with butter.

• Brush the last sheet with water before you butter it.

• Cut the pastry with a sharp knife-in a diamond shape, or any shape of your choice, bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 15 minutes or until golden.

• Remove from oven and pour the syrup on top while it is hot, sprinkle ground pistachio and serve cold.

Please note pan size should be the same size as the filo pastry.

Samara Cuisine
www.samaracuisine.co.uk